1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a robot and an encoder.
2. Related Art
An optical rotary encoder is generally known as one kind of encoder (for example, refer to JP-A-62-264887). For example, in a robot provided with a robot arm having a turnable joint, the rotary encoder detects rotation states such as a rotation angle, a rotation position, a number of rotations, and a rotation speed of the joint. Detection results thereof are typically used to control driving of the joint.
For example, in a rotation detection mechanism of the robot disclosed in JP-A-62-264887, the optical encoder is incorporated into the joint of the robot, and a hollow tubular flange-shaped rotator provided in the optical encoder is formed at an output flange for coupling two robot elements which are relatively rotated.
Since the rotation detection mechanism of the robot disclosed in JP-A-62-264887 requires the rotator separately from the two relatively rotated robot elements and also requires components or the like for fixing the rotator, the number of components increases, and, as a result, there is a problem in that it is not easy to achieve miniaturization or reduce the weight of the robot.